Hard Study proves right in Birdstone

by Anthony Affrunti

Paul Pompa Jr.'s Hard Study closed from off the pace to win by 2 ½ lengths in the $100,000 Birdstone on Thursday at Saratoga Race Course.

The 4-year-old Big Brown colt completed 1 ¾ miles on the main track in 2:56.17, just a second off the track record set by Reigh Count in 1928, for his first stakes victory.

The seven-horse field was taken through the early stages by Scuba, making his 21st start off of a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Dominion Day at Woodbine. Archanova, an allowance level shipper, sat a tight, stalking trip under Chris Landeros while Munjaz and Joel Rosario and Sea Raven, second in the Carl Hanford Memorial at Delaware Park followed with intent. 

Under jockey Kendrick Carmouche, Scuba set the early fractions of 25.77 seconds and 51.09 kept a moderate pace through the half-mile. Three quarters of a mile was run in 1:15.56, and a mile in 1:41.43 as Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez gave Hard Study, the even money favorite, his cue to make his move near the mile mark. 

The Todd Pletcher trainee loped his way towards the front end before finally getting the lead he held to the wire.

"He kept finding a little more and that's what you have to do in these mile and three-quarter-type races," Pletcher said. "We knew Scuba had some history at this distance, so we felt like he was the one to beat and Johnny targeted him on the backside the second time and was able to wear him down."

Hard Study, winner of five starts from 10 starts, paid $4.10 to win on a $2 wager.

"He was doing well the whole way around, so I was pretty confident he would do things,: Velazquez said. "I was a little more concerned around the three-eighths pole that I had to stay at a pace to catch up to where Carmouche was, and once I got there, I knew I had a chance to win."

The distance of the race, and the question of how the pace would play out was on Velazquez's mind.

"I was a little concerned obviously [about the distance]," Velazquez said. "The furthest he has gone is a mile and an eighth. I wanted to make sure I saved him for the end, but at the same time I couldn't let Carmouche get away with the pace that he [Scuba] was going. By the time I got to the quarter-pole and I caught up to Carmouche and he started riding. I thought, 'maybe I do have it now.'"

Scuba, never worse than second during the running of the race and the field's only entrant to have previously won at the distance, finished as the runner-up for trainer Brendan Walsh.

Archanova, whose strong effort allowed him to hold third, did so over Turco Bravo and rider Javier Castellano, winners of last year's running of the Birdstone, had to settle for fourth.

Not one of the seven starters who ran in the Birdstone did so with a victory in their prior race. Hard Study, a distant runner-up to Seymourdini, the 10 ½-length winner of the muddy State Dinner Stakes at Belmont Park owned two victories prior.

The Birdstone victory, and Hard Study's style, gives Pletcher some options looking ahead.

"He gave me the feeling that he would do it," Pletcher said. What's really important in these type of races is a horse that will relax early on and drop the bridle a little bit. We felt he would do that, but you never know until you actually try it. He was able to save ground pretty much the whole way and it unfolded the way we thought it would. He's always been a strong-galloping horse that is long-winded. It fit the profile of horses in the past that we had that were successful in these types of races."